


where you stand

by Rivani



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Colonialism, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Politics, a study of the effects of imperialism on those conquered
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:47:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28507683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rivani/pseuds/Rivani
Summary: Alibaba hadn't expected much from his return to Balbadd. A reunion with Zaynab and Hassan, perhaps? Maybe periods where he would reminiscence about Balbadd-as-it-was, the city of their childhood. What he finds instead is a city draped in chains.
Relationships: Aladdin & Alibaba Saluja
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Yudja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yudja/gifts).



> Happy winter exchange and happy new year Yudja!!! You're so cool and smart and I love you so much.   
> I know you like world building so I humbly offer you this gift and hope that it can be an enjoyable read.

_"The countries that are conquered by the Kou Empire… Become the Kou Empire itself."_

_\- Alibaba Saluja, Magi vol. 21 ch. 206_

* * *

**Scene 1: How it began**

"Hey, Alibaba?" Aladdin begins one night, voice quiet and lilting. 

In the deep hours of the night, the Sindrian jungle seems like a vast expanse of formless shadows. Aladdin and Alibaba sit on one of the many balconies of the palace, gazing up at the brilliance of distant stars filling the ink blotch purples and blues above. Behind them are the slumbering forms of those who had not stumbled away from one of many nights of revelry. 

Morgiana leans against Alibaba's side, her cheek pressed into the bone of his shoulder. The position can't be comfortable, but she'd nodded off against him nonetheless, and he's wary of moving lest he wake her from a well-deserved rest.

Alibaba turns his head as much as he can and looks at Aladdin. He keeps his voice low as well, matching Aladdin's tone. 

"What is it, Aladdin?"

Aladdin is wearing a somber expression that doesn't mesh with his youthful features. It's a kind of seriousness that Alibaba has seen only a few times before, on those rare occasions when Aladdin had displayed his true power. 

Once again, Alibaba wonders just how old Aladdin really is. He looks like a teenager, but his behaviour bounces from a childishness he should have long grown out of and a maturity beyond his years. How long had he spent in that box with his djinn friend? What had his life been before that point? What have those eyes seen, to make Aladdin look as though he carries the weight of a world on his shoulders? 

It is that same weight which accompanies Aladdin's words when he asks, still looking up at the dazzling sky, "Do you think you'll regret this?" 

_This._ 'This' could refer to a wealth of things. Their first dungeon together, or perhaps their second. Alibaba's decision to leave his country to rule itself. Their journey to Sindria, their time apart and together, the lives they couldn't stop from being taken time and time again… The list could go on and on.

Alibaba considers all of these events and none. He gives the question the reflection it deserves. Finally, he says, "No."

This gets Aladdin to look towards him. 

Alibaba expands. "My life…" He trails off and then starts again. "There are things that I've done," he says, "that I'm not proud of. I've acted in ways that I _can't_ be proud of. But since I've met you, I think I've become a better version of myself. Everything that's happened since has been on a path that I chose to step on myself. Maybe I haven't made the best decisions either, but I don't regret making them." 

He smiles and reaches out his hand to place it on Aladdin's head. More clearly, more earnestly, he says, "I won't ever regret meeting you, Aladdin."

Aladdin's head ducks down, his hair falling over his eyes. Alibaba can still see, however, the way his mouth quivers as though he's fighting back tears. "You'll tell me if that changes, won't you?" Aladdin asks tremulously.

Alibaba smiles and it's with the solid certainty of the fact that he'll never need to that he says, "I will."

**Soliloquy**

In Balbadd, Alibaba had come to a realisation. 

The people of his home country were worn down by the sands of corruption. The rays of a harsh sun had long dried up things like hope and blind optimism. Perhaps in a different world, these conditions would have browbeat them into a servile, cowering submission, but that world was not this one. 

Long after spit-fire rage and rebellion flared and died, even after riverbeds flooded then dried, the desert remained[1]. 

The people remained.

Balbaddians bowed their backs but they never broke. 

And there were no slaves in Balbadd.

**Scene 2: Reflection  
**

Some would have called what he had done running away. Alibaba would agree.

Balbadd had survived just fine without him, he had argued to himself. It didn’t need him going forward either.

Was that true, though? 

The country had crumbled in on itself over the years since his father had died. His half-brothers - mostly Abhmad, really - had driven it to ruin. How many people had stood by and let them, however? How many people had contributed to its demise? The members of the court still remained, and in the past, like vultures, they had swooped down on the bones discarded by their kings. What was to stop them from doing so in the future as well?

Abhmad and Sabhmad had changed under the influence of Sindria’s warmth, but the same couldn't be said for the others who had feasted at their feet. 

Had Alibaba left his home - his people - to be picked apart like some rotten carcass left under the sun? 

Yes. He'd done the same when he'd first fled the country. Even before that, when he'd stepped back from the throne and let Abhmad claim his place, Alibaba had long abandoned the notion of leadership. 

What did he owe Balbadd, that he needed to be its ruler? He'd lost his mother, his father, his sister, and his brother to its blood-soaked sands. What more did he have to give? Why _should he_ have to give it? 

He'd never wanted to be king nor to have the trappings of power and influence that came with it. He only needed what wealth was necessary to get by. Alibaba just wanted an easy life. A good life. 

And yet.

Alibaba was a coward, that much was true. He had run away from Balbadd, this was also true. 

And yet.

He stands on a battlefield across from the people who invaded his home and he tells them who he is. 

"Alibaba Saluja" is a name he hasn't used in a long time, but it feels like something slips into place when he does. Even when the Kou forces deride him, he's drawn the line and made himself clear, he thinks. He's done the right thing. 

And yet. 

He returns home once more, on a ship that flies Sindrian colours. This is no triumphant return. There are no horns to trumpet his arrival, nor any familiar faces to welcome him. Instead, Alibaba is greeted by the sight of a city that he doesn't know. 

As he stands on the floating dock of Balbadd's northern wharf, Alibaba can't see a single thing he recognises.

Gone are the white-clothed sailors crowding the bustling port. Gone are the wind-worn towers, the cracked walkways, and the hawkers that lined the streets. Here, there should have been wooden stalls laden with still wriggling fish, all under a patchwork canopy of dyed cloth. There, the old juice stand whose owner sometimes slid a pitcher in their direction with the excuse that it had gone warm, even though beads of condensation still rolled down the side of the glass. In their place, he finds only row upon row of the same tiled buildings. Everything is the same, and all of it is different from what he knows.

Balbaddd, Alibaba realises as he is guided through the streets he used to roam, is a country in name only. 

The Kou Empire was no longer a threat lurking at the edge of their borders. They _were_ the Kou Empire, and no part of the Balbadd of his childhood remained. 

"The way we live now is best," Zaynab says, and it feels like betrayal.

"There's a second baby inside Zaynab's womb," Hassan says, and the words clog like ash in his throat.

What right does he have to demand change that suits him? He'd turned his back on Balbadd. Whatever claim he'd once had to determine the fate of his country was long gone. Who is he now, to posture in front of the people he had abandoned and command them to take up arms once again? 

Alibaba's head spins. Standing before the closest thing Kasim has to a grave, he doesn't know what to think. In Reim, it had all seemed so clear, and yet. 

And yet.

**Scene 3: Chains**

The slave that they find dying on the street is the most stark change of all.

 _There are no slaves in Balbadd_. 

The man disagrees.

There are no slaves in _Balbadd_ . Balbadd doesn't _have_ slaves. 

No matter how many times Alibaba says it, no matter how many ways he says it, the Kou don't seem to understand. Worst of all are the Balbaddians who avert their gaze when he looks at them.

Do they not know how wrong this is? Does their skin not crawl, does bile not rise in their throats at the very thought? Slaves - in Balbadd! 

This is the moment when Alibaba truly thinks that all is lost.

He sends the slave - the _child_ \- to receive medical attention. It's paid for, of course, with the Empire's paper money. Funnily enough, the very thing that has sparked so much outrage in the past is now just another part of life. It's a joke that Alibaba's never felt less keen on laughing at. 

Ren Kouen sets out two paths before him. The first, to cut his ties with Sindria and swear fealty to him in order to serve his country. The second, to remain under Sinbad and abandon his people.

He feels like a mouse caught in a labyrinthine maze made by the kings around him. Is this what all of this - the blood and the fear and the belief that he could do _something_ \- has been leading up to? Does he have no other choice? Alibaba's head spins. 

He seeks out Kougyoku. He needs a friend. He needs someone to grasp onto, to tell him - _it's going to be alright, Alibaba_ \- that it's okay for him to be a coward. He wants reassurance. He wants advice. He gets it, but not from the person he hoped he would.

His stomach churns. What Sinbad has done to Kougyoku terrifies and disgusts him in equal measures. He had controlled her, taken away her will and even her knowledge that he had done so. Kougyoku had trusted him. _Alibaba_ had trusted him. And in one fell move, Sinbad had betrayed them both.

It is this, perhaps, that decides his mind. Standing on the parapet of the palace where he once lived, looking at a foreign king wearing the skin of a friend, Alibaba makes his first step onto a different path.

He looks Kougyoku - Sinbad - in the eye and says, "I won't be your spy."

She - he - blinks. "Oh?" The voice is amused, though not particularly surprised. 

From a brief, burning moment, Alibaba hates him. Sinbad speaks in a cool, condescending tone, as though he knows everything Alibaba is thinking. Maybe he is predictable. Maybe Alibaba is the third of the three people Sinbad had mentioned. 

The second the thought crosses his mind, he dismisses it. After all, there would be little use in spying through the eyes of someone as useless as Alibaba. No, more likely, Sinbad is just trying to get to him. It's working.

Alibaba feels his shoulders begin to raise around his ears and he forces them back down. "Yeah," he says. "I won't go along with your mind games. You said you'd do anything for your people, right? Well, the same is true for me." He sets his jaw and forms his hands into fists, trying to hide the fact that he's shaking. He can't tell if it's from nerves or anger, and he doesn't want Sinbad to know either. "The most important thing to me is my people."

"The people you abandoned?" Sinbad asks, smiling. 

"Yeah," Alibaba admits. "I abandoned them because I was a coward. I didn't think there was anything I could do to help. But I'm here now, and I can't ignore things any longer. I need - I need to change. Kassim," he begins, then cuts off. His throat bobs. He starts again. "My brother died for this country. I don't want anyone else to have to again."

"So," Sinbad says. "What will you do?" 

"I don't know," he responds. "I have no clue what I need to do." He smiles, and it's a shaky thing. "But I know I won't do it with you."

Kougyoku's head cocks at that. Finally, Sinbad says, "I look forward to seeing how that turns out, then."

With that, Kougyoku's body sags forward. Alibaba rushes to catch her before she can fall to the ground. Her breath is even and after a few seconds, she stirs. 

"Alibaba..?" Kougyoku blinks slowly, a dazed look of confusion on her face. "What are you -" She turns red. "Why are you holding me?"

Alibaba halts. All the thoughts jumbled up in his mind - the anger at how Kouen had treated him, at how Sinbad had used Kougyoku like a pawn - abruptly evaporate; suddenly, he is all too aware of _warm_ and _soft_ and _girl._

His hands automatically loosen around her waist, then tighten when he realises - right, floor, Kougyoku, still parallel to it.

"Y-you just fell all of a sudden," Alibaba stammers, his own face the same shade of bright red. He brings her upright then lets go. “Sorry.”

“No, no, thank you for catching me.” Kougyoku’s eyes squeeze shut, a pained look crossing her face. She brings her hand up to press against her temple. “I… I don’t know what could have caused that.”

Alibaba flinches. He thinks of Sinbad’s words - a prophecy of all the things that would go wrong once it became known that the king had control over Kougyoku’s mind. He thinks of the unconditional warmth Kougyoku has shared with him. He licks his lips. 

"Kougyoku," he says. "I need to tell you something."

**Scene 4: Confidence**

She doesn't take the news well. 

The fact that she takes the news at all is probably worth noting. Sinbad never speaks with her lips throughout their conversation, though Alibaba thinks it likely that the man is watching through her eyes. 

More pressing, however, is Kougyoku's reaction. She pales, swaying on her feet, and has to place a hand on the stone of the parapet to steady herself. 

"I-I thought I could-"

"Trust him?" Alibaba finishes sardonically. "I did too."

"I know we're from different nations but - He's Sinbad!"

"Hero of the seven seas…" Alibaba mutters. "But not of the rest of the world."

"I just," Kougyoku continues, her voice climbing higher. "I wanted - I was ready to -"

"He established _Sindria_ , of all places," Alibaba gesticulates. "How could he not understand?"

"He has women climbing all over him." She covers her face with her hands and mumbles through them, " I should have known better."

"He used you, just like he wanted to use me." Alibaba scowls. "Just like Kouen wants to use me."

"Kouen..?" The daze returns slightly to Kougyoku's voice, and Alibaba fears for a second that Sinbad has taken control of her once again. She snaps back to normal after a few seconds though, and her voice is clear when she demands, "Tell me again what he said to you."

Quoth His Highness, the crown prince Ren Kouen, "Become my right hand man, Alibaba Saluja. Combine your efforts with Koumei in order to improve Balbadd. Cut off all your connections to Sindria and swear fealty to me. If you do this, I will give you full authority in Balbadd in the future."

Quoth His Highness, the second prince Ren Koumei, "There are three conditions: First, you must completely cut your ties with Sindria. Second, you must present a concrete proposal in ruling Balbadd that we lack. And third, you must show your loyalty to the Imperial Family of Ren with all of yourself."

Kougyoku purses her lips.

She says,

"Alibaba, what do you want to do?"

He doesn't know.

She says,

"Alibaba, what do your people need?"

He doesn't know.

She says,

"Alibaba, what can you do for them?"

He doesn't know. Just like he didn't know when he was an idiotic kid, just like he didn't know when he went along with Kassim's plans all the way up until he _died_ , he still has no idea what to do. It's been years and he hasn't changed at all, still the same clueless fool who has some self-absorbed belief that he can actually make things better.

Alibaba presses the heels of his hands against his eyes. 

"I don't - what do you think?" he asks. Kougyoku's smarter than he is. Unlike him, she was born to be a princess. She's not just some kid taken off the streets. Kougyoku probably has a whole plan lined up already.

Then she says, softly, "Alibaba, this is your country."

He blinks, taken aback. "What?"

She meets his eyes resolutely. "You know," Kougyoku tells him, "I'm part of the Kou Empire."

"Y-yeah? I've always known that." He doesn't quite understand where she's going with this, but he has a sinking feeling in his stomach that's worsening by the second. 

"Kouen is my _brother_ ," Kougyoku insists, voice growing stronger. "My family has a responsibility to lead our people."

"Your people," Alibaba responds slowly, above the sounds of blood rushing in his ears. "Do they include Balbaddians?"

"Well," she says awkwardly, then sets her shoulders. "Yes. We conquered Balbadd. This is our country as much as it is yours. That's why Kouen is doing so much here. He and Koumei are working hard for the good of everyone in the Kou Empire. And that includes Balbadd."

"So, everything the Empire is doing, you agree with that? With, with the sameness and the occupation, and the _slavery?"_

"I don't agree with everything," Kougyoku admits, "but we're doing this so that everyone will be better off! And I know Koumei and Kouen, Alibaba. If there was any other way, they would have taken it."

"You can't actually believe that," he says weakly.

"What's so wrong with it if I do?" she challenges. 

He throws up his hands. "Everything! Your brother was the one who brought slaves into Balbadd!"

"Alibaba, I don't understand," Kougyoku says. "You keep coming back to there being the slave-class in Balbadd. None of your friends are slaves, though. It's just there to keep people in line. There are plenty of other countries that have slaves - Morgiana was a slave, herself. Why are you so hung up on this?"

"Why am I so - why am I so hung up in this?" he splutters. "Slavery is wrong, Kougyoku! No one should belong to someone else, as though they're an _object_ that you can own."

"That's a reason for anyone to dislike it," she points out. "But you seem to take it personally. Why?"

That brings him up short. "You don't know?" 

"I don't," Kougyoku admits readily. "So make me understand."

He does.

She blinks.

"Okay," she says.

"I get it now," she says.

"So, work with me, Alibaba," she says. "Work with Kouen, and Koumei, and all of us. And we'll bring back that Balbadd."

Alibaba breathes out shakily. His anger has all but left him drained and now the only thing that's left is the disquiet in his stomach and that same nervous thrum that says, _You need to do something._

He tries to not feel like he's signing his soul over to the devil when he says, "Okay."

And then he does.

**Intermission: What Alibaba said**

Balbadd was an archipelago of islands, but they hadn't always been united under one flag. At one point, each island was its own independent nation, and even then there was division amongst them. 

The mainland had been the most disparate of them all, too far from the islands to make regular travel feasible. 

That was why, perhaps, that it took so long to realise that entire islands of people were disappearing. With limited communication and isolationist practices, how could anyone realise what was going on beneath their noses?

When the slavers were discovered, it was almost too late. 

Back then, there had been no navy, no formal forces or fleet. The largest ships had been the fishing and merchant vessels, and they were slow and lumbering, meant for stability in the deepwater. 

It was a Salujja who spread word of the slave ships, and a Saluja who captained the cobbled-together fleet that ran the slavers aground. 

It was the Salujas who lost the most of their people, the Salujas whose families were scattered and traded away, the Salujas whose blood was spilled on Balbadd's golden sands. 

It was the Salujas who swore that never again would slaves be taken in Balbadd. 

And now, it seemed, only one Balbaddian remembered that oath.

**Scene 5: Resolution**

When Alibaba stands before Kouen again, he sets his shoulders. 

"I don't like you," he announces.

Kouen raises his eyebrows. "I don't need you to. But the fact that you're here right now, means that you don't care that you don't either."

Alibaba nods stiffly. "I don't agree with what you're doing," he says. "I think you're going about this wrong. But I can't stand by anymore."

"Have you finally decided to set your country first?"

"Yes." Alibaba's eyes burn with a feverish light. "I have."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 Credit where credit’s due, this line is borrowed from Fialleril’s [Double Agent Vader series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/286908).[return to text]


	2. Chapter 2

**Outtake: Policies**

The thing is, Alibaba doesn't like the Kou Empire.

After hearing from Koumei, he's even more centred in this dislike. Their plans are antithetical to everything that Balbadd is. How can they possibly take a country—a world—that's so diverse, and make everyone the same? 

The thought is ludicrous, but looking down at the city below below, its tiled buildings a far cry from the clay buildings he keeps expecting to see, Alibaba knows that they could pull it off. 

_If I leave now_ , he thinks, _there won’t be a place like Balbadd ever again. But if I don’t leave—if I can convince them to do things differently—maybe I can at least save my people._

So, he doesn't leave. 

Instead, he sits across from Kouen and Koumei and proposes a plan that leaves a sour taste in his mouth. He signs away his country and tries not to feel like he's signing his soul away with it. 

The meeting goes something like this:

Kouen sits in a high backed chair at the head of the table, his brother beside him. A map of Balbadd is stretched before them, his country sketched out in black ink instead of the warm colours of sand and waves. 

Alibaba comes armed with Amon at his side and a bundle of scrolls in his arms. 

A woman in brown clothing that marks her as a servant bows demurely in the Kou style, even though Alibaba has known her ever since he first began living in the palace. She closes the door behind her as she backs away, and Alibaba is left in the study where he had once been lectured at by his tutors, feeling just as out of his depth as he had in this place five, ten years before. 

After a tense few seconds, he clears his throat. 

_Start strong,_ he thinks, then says, "What you're planning won't work."

Koumei sighs. "This again?" 

Alibaba holds up a hand. "What you're planning won't work," he says again. "Not in Balbadd."

"It's been working." Koumei rolls his eyes. "Or have you not been outside since you returned to Balbadd?"

"You might have thought that was the case," Alibaba insists. "But that doesn't make it true. What you're forgetting is that Balbadd isn't like the other countries the Empire has conquered prior to this."

"In what way?"

"The countries in the plateau," Alibaba says, "were relatively stable. Yes, there were tensions between tribes and villages within Delhinmar and Qishan, but those were largely localised. As a whole, those countries hadn't experienced any large scale turmoil."

Koumei's gaze sharpens. "You think the unrest from two years ago is still a factor? The country has already moved past that."

"It hasn't," Alibaba says, shaking his head. "I know Balbadd. The people are tired of revolutions. That's why they haven't done anything to protest the changes being made. However, mixed sentiment towards your occupation still remains."

"This isn't an occupation," Koumei responds.

"No, you're here to stay, aren't you," Alibaba says rhetorically before forging on. "But Balbaddians don't all believe that. Right now they're putting up with it, but a year from now? Two? Five? Who's to say that they won't get tired of being under a foreign power's rule?"

"We will eliminate prejudice against the Kou Empire," Koumei declares levelly. "Balbadd is part of the Kou Empire now. In time, the people will realise that they and the Empire are one of the same. There is no threat of an uprising."

"You can say this now," Alibaba argues, "but the truth of the matter is that the Kou Empire was only recently established. There's no precedent for a large-scale move to colonise the entire world."

"Gou -"

"Records surviving the Gou dynasty suggest that they made it as far as the border of modern-day Mystania. That's hardly comparable to a campaign to unite the world under one flag."

Alibaba glances over to Kouen, who continues to watch them debate silently, his gaze assessing. He turns his full attention back to Koumei and then continues. “The reality is that you can’t say for sure whether your plans will actually work.”

At that, Koumei scoffs. "The Kou Empire Will unify the entire world. There's no doubt about that."

"How can you be so certain?" Alibaba presses. 

Kouen tilts his head. "Rather than running in circles with this argument," he says, speaking for the first time, "I assume you have something concrete to present to us."

"Y-yes!" Alibaba startles to attention from where he was leaning forward over the table and passes one of the larger scrolls to Koumei, who immediately unfurls it and begins to scan its contents.

"This is the outline of my proposal," Alibaba explains, drawing confidence from the memories of presenting his work first to stony-faced instructors then before his father's council. "I've laid out several areas of concern with regards to the current occupation of Balbadd and how they could be addressed. I've also included an assessment on the scale of potential impact on the governance and stability of the region, as well as possible repercussions failure to address them may have on the Empire as a whole."

Koumei makes a vague hum in his throat as he squints and begins to concentrate more on the words Alibaba had painstakingly drafted in his best calligraphy. 

"Summarise it for me," Koumei orders, linking his hands together in front of him. His eyes are lidded but his gaze is still as coldly scrutinising as ever. 

Alibaba licks his lips. 

This is the hard part. This is the part where he has to dissuade two princes who very much believe that they're in the right from wiping out his people's entire culture and way of life. This is the part where he has to stake his nation on the blind hope that somehow his words will get through to them even though all signs point to the road where they won't. This is the part where he takes a stand.

This is the part where he has to believe that somehow, even without a djinn or a magi to step in, he has the ability to make things work out. 

This is the part that Alibaba won't ever let himself regret.


End file.
